More on WWE’s Cryptic Viral Campaign, and possible Jericho return!

There has been a lot of talk about the cryptic “SAVE_US.222” video that aired after RAW on Monday. While the exact meaning of the video remains unknown, we do have an interesting story regarding the mysterious promotional piece. Back in June, before the Benoit tragedy, former WWE creative writer Court Bauer suggested to the rest of the WWE Creative Team a different idea to introduce the new Hart Foundation or the return of Chris Jericho.

The idea was to run a viral marketing campaign, something like an updated version of the Y2J countdown clock in which he debuted in WWE with back in 1999. Ideas included setting up web sites developed by third parties, doing things on YouTube, and mystery ads on WWE.com (one example for the Hart Foundation idea was to have a “public service announcement” on heart attacks that would take you to a Calgary-related web site). The underlying idea was to develop an interactive campaign where fans would have to try to “crack the code.”

Bauer’s idea was very popular amongst the rest of the creative team until things were turned upside down by the Benoit tragedy. Some of the clues in the SAVE_US.222 video such as the WWE theme music clue and deliberate misdirects with the whole Jericho feel could be an indication that the video has something to do with Y2J’s return to WWE. While nothing has been confirmed, the piece seemed very similar to the initial idea that was thought up this past summer.